Valve for submarine boats.



H. B. CADYM VALVE FOR SUBMARINE BOATS.

APPLICATION men APR-4. ma.

Patented Nov. 26, 1918.

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H. B. CADY.

VALVE FOR SUBMARINE BOATS- APPLICATION FILED APR.4. 1918.

1 ,285,931. Patented Nov. 26, 1918.

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UNITED STATES PATENT onn on.

HERBERT BARNEY GADY, 0F GROTON, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR T0 ELECTRIC BOACOMPANY. ACORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

VALVE For. SUBMARINE soars.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 4, 1918. Serial No. 226,739.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT B. C ADY, a citizen of the United States,residlng at .Groton, in the county of New London, State of Connecticut,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Valves forSubmarine Boats; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

This invention relates to submarine boats, and more particularlyinvolves the provision of an improved ballast tank flooding valveinstallation. 7

In submarine boats, it is important to provide means for flooding themain ballast tanks quickly whenever desired, as when preparing tosubmerge, and for that purpose large Kingston or flooding valves areprovided, the valves being arranged to open outwardly so that the seapressure forcibly holds the valve closed. In the case of hand operatedvalves, much difliculty is often experienced in opening the valveagainst the sea pressure, especially where the valve must be openedquickly. Moreover, submarine boats are being constructed larger andlarger, the ballast tanks are being enlarged in proportion, and thedifficulties of handling the ordinary Kingston valve are correspondinglyincreased.

According to the present invention, the combination is provided of awater ballast tank, a valve operated from within the boat for puttingthe tank into and out of communlcation with the sea, and means operatedfrom within the boat for admitting sea water to the interior of the boatso that this sea water may act on the valve member to facilitate openingof the valve against the sea pressure. I

T e preferred arrangement comprises two tanks, a major tank and a minortank, the major tank being the well known main ballast tank having awall formed by a part of the hull of the boat. An opening in the hull ofthe boat is provided for placing the interior of the ballast tank incommunication with the sea, an outwardly opening Kingston valve servingnormally to close this hull opening. The minor tank is provided with apiston-like member comprised by a movable wall secured to the stem ofthe Kingston valve, so that pressure in the minor tank will tend to movethe valve. A conduit connects the interior of the minor tank directlywith the sea. This conduit is normally closed by means of a valve soarranged that it may be manually operated from within the hull andindependently of the Kingston valve, to control the admission of seawater'through the conduit into the minor tank to act on the movable wallor piston. l

The various features of the invention together with the advantagesinherentv therein will best be understood by reference to the followingdescription when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.

In these drawings Figure 1 shows, in section, a tank equipped with onetype of valve; Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail view taken on the line 22 ofFig. 1; Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but showing the tankequipped with another type of valve; and Fig. l is a top plan view ofcertain of the parts shown in Fig. 3.

Referring to Figs. land 2, there is illustrated at 6 one of the ballasttanks of a submarine,- the skin of thehull being shown at 7 and forminga wall of the tank opposite I the tanks roof 8.

The skin 7 is provided with a Kingston or flooding valve 9 for closingan opening 9 to the sea. The valve 9 has a mushroom head 9*, a hub 9 andradially-arranged guiding ribs 9. The valve is secured to the lower endof a valve-stem 10, the upper end of the stem passing through tank 6,its roof 8, and a suitable stufiing box 11. The valve stem is movedaxially to open and close the valve 9, by means of hand-wheel 12, thehand-wheel carrying a sleeve 13, which is interiorly threaded to coactwith a threaded portion 10 ofthe valve-stem. The sleeve 13 is journaledin a fixed bearing 14, the bearing being interposed between collarsl3and 15 carried by the sleeve. The sleeve is thus permitted to rotate butis prevented from axial movement, and accordingly the handwheel 12may-be rotated in one direction or the other to open or close theKingston valve. Other suitable mechanism for axially moving the valvestem may be used.

A- minor tank 23 is located within the ballast tank 6 and is providedwith a movable wall or piston 25 which is secured to the stem 10 of theKingston valve. Pipes 21 and 22 form a conduit or passageway communicating at its inner end with the interior of the minor tank 23, theoutboard end of the pipe 22 being open to the sea.

At the junction of pipes 21 and 22 is located a valve casing 20 for aplug-valve 19. The spindle 17 of the plug-valve is journaled in asuitable bearing 18 and is provided with a cock 16 exterior to the tank6. The plug-valve is provided with passages 19 and 19*, the passage 19being ordinarily arranged as shown in broken lines at 19 When, however,the cock 16 is moved to turn the plug-valve 19 so that the passages 19and 19* are arranged as shown in. full lines, sea-water passes from pipe22 to and through pipe 21 and into the minor tank 23. The pressure ofthe sea-water, acting on the wall or piston 25, may be made to balance,wholly or in part, or to overbalance, the pressure of the sea-water onthe mushroom head 9 of the Kingston valve which offers resistance to theopening of the valve; the balancing action being dependent upon therelative areas of the wall 25 and valve 9 and upon the difference inhydrostatic head at the two points. The pipes 21 and 22, and thepassages 19" and 19 in the-plug valve, should be large enough to permita free flow of water to and from the minor-tank 23 as the wall moves.

The operation is as follows:

Let us assume that the submarine is in surface or light condition, andit is desired to flood the ballast tanks preparatory to submergence. Thecock 16 is opened wide to admit sea-water to the minor tank 23. by thismeans a pressure on the movable wall or piston 25 may be opposed to thesubmergence pressure which is holding the Kingston valve on its seat,thereby substantially re- .ducing the resistance of the Kingston valveto opening movement. After the opening of the plug valve 19, the handWheel 12 -may with little effort be revolved a sufficient number oftimes to open the Kingston valve.

Referring now to Figs. 3 and 4:, there is illustrated a water ballasttank 6 having the walls 7 and 8 and an opening 9 to the sea, and a minortank 23 having a movable wall or piston 25, all substantially as shownin Figs. 1 and 2. The ballast tank 6 is provided with a Kingston valve28 for closing the opening 9, the stem of the Kingston valve having themovable wall of the minor tank 23 secured thereto. The mushroom headvalve member 28 is generally similar to the mushroom head valve member 9of Figs. 1 and 2 as will be noted. The hub of the Kingston valve 28,however, is bored, the upper end of this bore being threaded on thelower end or a tubular valve stem 29. The lower end of the bore throughthe hub of'the Kingston valve is shaped to form a conical valve seat 28This valve seat 28 co-acts with an outwardly opening valve 30 secured tothe lower end of a solid valve stem 31 which extends through the hubsbore and through the tubular valve stem 29. The solid valve stem 31passes through the entire length of the tubular valve stem 29 andprojects above the top of the tubular valve stem and above the top of astuliing-box 32 mounted on the upper end of the tubular valve stem andforming a leak-tight slide bearing for the solid valve stem. A similarbearing for the tubular valve stem is provided in the tank roof 8 asindicated at 33. The tubular valve stem 29 is equipped with a pluralityof apertures 3e which serve to keep annular conduit 35 formed betweenthe two valve stems in communication at all times with the interior ofthe minor tank 23.

The operation of the valve shown in Fig. 3 is as follows:

The solid valve-stem 31 is moved downward relatively to the tubularvalve-stem 29 to unseat the valve 30, and then sea water enters theannular conduit 35, passes upwardly through the conduit, flows throughthe apertures 3s, floods the tank 23 and acts on the Kingston valve 28to oppose the submergence pressure. Then the tubular valve stem 29 ismoved downward to open the thus balanced Kingston valve.

It will be noted that the arrangement of Fig. 3 shows a valveinstallation constructed and operating according to the presentinvention, but having the two valves and their connections verycompactly arranged inside the tank 6, the two valve-stems beingeoncentric and hence conveniently located relative to a singlecontrolling mechanism which may be provided for operating the twovalves.

In order that the valves 28 and 30 may be operated conveniently and inproper order from a single station, hand-wheels 36 and 37 may beprovided and mechanism associated therewith as indicated. The handwheel36 is secured to one end of a hollow worm shaft 38 journaled in asuitable bearing 39. The worm meshes with a worm gear 40 fixed on arook-shaft 41 carrying an offset H-shaped rocker-arm 42. The swingingends of the rocker-arm'are pivoted to the upper ends of a pair of links43, the lower ends of these links being pivoted to cars 32 formed onstuffing box 32. The hand Wheel 87 is secured on a solid shaft 44 whichextends through and works within the hollow worm shaft 38, the shaft 44having fixed thereon a bevel gear se meshing with a similargear 45 whichhas a threaded bore and whieh is journaled in a suitable bearing 46. Thethreads within'the bore of gear 45 coact with threads on the upper endof the solid valve stem 31. When the hand wheel 37 is rotated in onedirection or the other, the valve 80 is opened or closed independ entlyof an opening or closing of the Kingston valve; and when the hand wheel36 is rotated in one direction or the other, the Kingston valve isopened or closed or both hand wheels may be rotated together to open orclose the Kingstonvalve while maintaining the valve 30 opened or closed.

From the foregoing it will be seen that in the above describedconstructions, when valve 30 and the Kingston valve are closed, theKingston valve is very much unbalanced in favor of a retention of itsclosed position, at any time when the pressure inside the major tank isless than the sea pressure. When thus unbalanced, the stout skin of thehull receives all the strains of the valveclosing fluid-pressure, andthere is no possibility that the Kin ston valve may be inadvertentlyopened. n other words, the Kingston valve may be substantially balancedand hence easily opened, when, and only when the auxiliary valve isdeliberately opened first and as a preliminary to opening the Kingstonvalve.

While the invention has been illustrated in connection with the Kingstonvalve of the ballast tank 6, it will of course be understood that theinvention may with equal advantage be applied to the vent-valveequipment of a ballast tank, as will be readily apparent to thoseskilled in the art.

I claim:

1. In a submarine boat, the combination of a water ballast tank havingan opening below the water line of the boat for admitting sea waterthereinto; a valve for controlling said opening normally held forciblyin closed position by the pressure exerted against it by the sea; apiston connected to said valve; a cylinder wherein said piston isarranged to work; a conduit opening into the sea and leading therefrominto said cylinder, for admitting sea water back of said piston to actthereagainst, so as to balance the pressure exerted by the sea againstsaid valve and permit the valve to be readily opened thereafter; and adevice for opening said valve operative after the pressures have beenbalanced.

2. In a submarine boat, the combination of major and minor water tanks,the major tank having an opening below the water line of the boat foradmitting sea water thereinto, and the minor tank having a movable wall;an outwardly-opening valve normally held forcibly in closed position insaid opening by the pressure exerted against it by the sea, said valvehaving said movable wall connected to it; a conduit in the boat forestablishing communication between the minor tank and the sea, so as toadmit sea water to said minor tank and thereby impose pressure upon saidmovable wall, to balance the pressure exerted by the sea against saidvalve and permit the valve to be readily opened; and valve means forcontrolling the passage of sea water through said conduit.

3. In a submarine boat, the combination of a main water ballast tankhaving an opening below the water line of the boat for admitting seawater thereinto; an auxiliary water tank within the main tank having amovable wall in line with said opening; a valve for controlling saidopening normally held forcibly in closed position by the pres sureexerted against it by the sea, a stem to which said valve is securedextending through the auxiliary tank and having said movable wallfastened to it; a conduit for establishing communication between theauxiliary tank and the sea, so as to admit sea water to said auxiliarytank and thereby impose pressure upon said movable wall, to balance thepressure exerted by the sea against said valve; a valve for controllingthe passage of water through said conduit; a device for opening thelast-named valve; and a separate device for opening the firstnamed valveafter the pressures have been so balanced.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

HERBERT BARNEY CADY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. O.

